Long COVID or post-COVID-19 syndrome: putative pathophysiology, risk factors, and treatments

Long COVID or post-COVID-19 syndrome: putative pathophysiology, risk factors, and treatments

2021; VOL. 53, NO. 10, 737-754 | Shin Jie Yong
This review discusses the current understanding of Long COVID, a condition affecting survivors of COVID-19, regardless of the severity of their initial illness or age. The most common symptoms reported are fatigue and dyspnoea, which can last for months after the acute phase. Other persistent symptoms include cognitive and mental impairments, chest and joint pains, palpitations, myalgia, smell and taste dysfunctions, cough, headache, and gastrointestinal and cardiac issues. The review highlights that Long COVID may be driven by long-term tissue damage (e.g., lung, brain, and heart) and pathological inflammation (e.g., from viral persistence, immune dysregulation, and autoimmunity). Risk factors include female sex, more than five early symptoms, early dyspnoea, prior psychiatric disorders, and specific biomarkers (e.g., D-dimer, CRP, and lymphocyte count). While personalized rehabilitation training may help certain cases, therapeutic drugs repurposed from similar conditions, such as myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, and mast cell activation syndrome, also hold potential. However, more research is needed to validate these findings and understand the multifaceted nature of Long COVID.This review discusses the current understanding of Long COVID, a condition affecting survivors of COVID-19, regardless of the severity of their initial illness or age. The most common symptoms reported are fatigue and dyspnoea, which can last for months after the acute phase. Other persistent symptoms include cognitive and mental impairments, chest and joint pains, palpitations, myalgia, smell and taste dysfunctions, cough, headache, and gastrointestinal and cardiac issues. The review highlights that Long COVID may be driven by long-term tissue damage (e.g., lung, brain, and heart) and pathological inflammation (e.g., from viral persistence, immune dysregulation, and autoimmunity). Risk factors include female sex, more than five early symptoms, early dyspnoea, prior psychiatric disorders, and specific biomarkers (e.g., D-dimer, CRP, and lymphocyte count). While personalized rehabilitation training may help certain cases, therapeutic drugs repurposed from similar conditions, such as myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, and mast cell activation syndrome, also hold potential. However, more research is needed to validate these findings and understand the multifaceted nature of Long COVID.
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